IN YOUR OPINION

Letters to the Editor for Oct. 26, 2013

Published: Saturday, October 26, 2013 at 6:30 a.m.

Last Modified: Friday, October 25, 2013 at 5:09 p.m.

The GOP's brainchild

In never ceases to amaze me that the critics of the Affordable Care Act fail to mention it was a Republican plan! The conservative Heritage Foundation came up with the idea in 1989 — and it included the mandate. It was implemented in Massachusetts — successfully — as “Romneycare” in 2006.

What are you folks afraid of? That it might be successful, like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid? If you are so against these “social programs “ please send back your next check. Please don't use the medical benefits you get under these programs. In your lifetime you will take much more than you contributed.

According to Politifact, a couple each earning $44,600 in 2012 dollars, age 65 in 2010 will have paid in $722,000 to Social Security and Medicare and receive $966,000 in benefits. Hey, give that back! A couple with one person who worked will receive much, much more. Don't get me started with the survivor's benefit that a widow gets. Not her money. Give it back.

Republicans, it's your program — just not being administered by your candidate. He's out in California tearing down his multimillion-dollar home so he can triple it in size.

Kathy O'Connell

Ocala

Obamacare is illegitimate

With the Obamacare rollout an unmitigated disaster, Democrats deploy a refrain to defend their spiteful national socialist law: Enactment equals “law of the land,” upheld by the Supreme Court. Implementation equals permanence, and President Barack Obama defeated Mitt Romney.

Obama expects America to hypnotically conclude that the Affordable Care Act is inexorable. Only Emperor Obama is entitled to modify it, using unilateral and unconstitutional methods to advance his socialist objectives.

Obamacare is entirely illegitimate. Sadly, Americans fail to counter the spin, because they forget enactment required: the Cornhusker Kickback; the Bayou Bribe; two unelected senators installed with insider deals, Paul Kirk, D-Mass., and Roland Burris, D-Ill.; a comedian winning a Senate seat by 312 votes, Al Franken, D-Minn.; prohibited use of budget reconciliation process; thousands of waivers handed out to donor unions and corporations; relentless 24/7 marketing barrage actually weakened public support; and, Obama's tenets, “we should all have to play by the same rules,” “everyone must have skin in the game,” “everyone paying their fair share to bend the cost curve down,” were lies. The new tenet: “Dear 99 percent, unless you are a union, corporate donor, member of Congress, etc., you lose and the 1 percenters win again.”

Barack will have your doctor earning minimum wage and 16,000 IRS agents making six figures. Barack's first responder is an IRS agent scrutinizing your taxes in place of a doctor scrutinizing you.

President Bill Clinton signed a law putting 100,000 cops on the streets to protect the public. Obama will put 100,000 bureaucrats in plush offices to harass the life out of the middle class. By any metric, Obamacare is, indisputably, an illegitimate statute.

Randy Fritz

Anthony

Fight for life

A portion of the Affordable Care Act began in 2012. The major portion begins in 2014. A letter from the president and CEO of a major South Florida hospital advised employees of the $300 million in cuts to Medicare over the next 10 years, beginning with $23 million in 2012, plus $10 million to Medicaid in 2012. When the rest of the law begins in 2014 we'll find out how many other cuts are coming.

This is not the only hospital receiving these cuts. Many will be forced to cut back on services and employment. Some may eventually be forced to close.

My husband and I each received copies of letters from Medicare regarding denial of payment for life-threatening health issues they had previously paid for. Remember the panels that didn't exist? The letters clearly stated that non-payment decisions were made by “a panel of health care professionals.” They had overridden the directives of our doctors.

Despite assurances that (in 2012) people could no longer be denied insurance coverage for “pre-existing conditions,” friends were denied. Other friends have lost their doctors, who no longer accept Medicare. In the midst of an existing doctor shortage, many doctors are leaving their practices because of ACA.

Fewer hospitals and fewer doctors don't characterize even decent, much less free, health care. If life means something to you, letting ACA fail on its own is not an option, because by the time people realize they were sold a bill of goods, many lives will have been lost.

I am proud of those courageous, younger congressional Republicans who stood firm against Obamacare. The shutdown caused hardship, but our founding fathers experienced far more hardship than this when fighting for “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” Life is the priority, because the rest are meaningless if one is not alive.

Sandi Trusso

Ocala

Omitted from VisitFlorida

Your Sunday paper included a copy of the VisitFlorida.com “Fall Travel Guide.”

There was no mention of Ocala/Marion County in their Central Florida section! There are numerous attractions for tourists and other visitors that should be included in that publication. In addition to the Silver Springs State Park, Wild Waters Water Park, several horse farm tours and related equine events, there are golf courses, jai alai, the Ocala Speedway, RV parks and camping and fishing and boating locations, and these are just a few of our local attractions. Since the VisitFlorida.com is distributed through the Star-Banner system, why doesn't the management advise the publisher to include Ocala/Marion County in the next edition of VisitFlorida travel guide.

Dan Stinecipher

Ocala

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